Off-the-floor plumbing fixtures are easily the most widely used plumbing fixtures in commercial building today. As the name implies, no part of the fixture touches the floor of the installation. The fixture is mounted to steel studs protruding through the wall from a carrier support in the pipe chase. The carrier support is anchored to the chase floor and receives the fixture load. The advantages of off-the-floor fixtures, as opposed to floor mounted fixtures, are numerous and include improvements in installation, maintenance, sanitation and aesthetics.
Installation of these fixtures typically includes: roughing in the fixture support carrier; anchoring the legs to the floor of the building, and installing the entire carrier assembly including the toilet and finishing wall tile or drywall.
After all of these steps, a plumbing inspector measures the distance from the centerline of the toilet to the outside wall to determine if the installation is in compliance with the requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”). If the inspector determines that the toilet is too far away or too close to the wall relative to the requirements of the ADA, the contractor may have no choice but to remove the toilet, tear open the finished wall and remove the fixture support carrier so that it can be re-installed a short distance to the left or the right to comply with the strict requirements of the ADA. Accordingly, there is a need for an adjustable fixture support carrier that provides for adjustment to the left or right without moving the legs of the carrier.